Zhang Blind is a famous fortune teller on our side, and Chen Daoshi is actually quite related, he has been blind since he was a child, and later learned from Chen Daoshi's uncle (that uncle used to make a revolution, blind during the war), they should be regarded as the same brother. The Zhang family of Zhangwan is considered to be the Wang family, and the Zhangwan where the blind man is located is more than ten miles away from our Song Bay, called Lao Zhangwan, and later some people moved out, forming a village not far away, which is called Xinzhangwan.

When the sky is fine, Zhang Blind will follow the people in the bay to the town, tell fortunes at the intersection of the roundabout in the center of the town, and stay in the village when the sky is cloudy. Zhang Blind had no descendants, and lived with his brother's family, who had died a few years earlier when he had just turned 60, and now his two nephews had settled him in a cottage by the kitchen.

My mother and I arrived on a rainy morning, when the blind man had just finished eating in the kitchen and was sitting under the eaves, and his eldest nephew was chatting with him. My mother asked me to call my blind cousin grandpa and his nephew cousin. This is the case in our rural areas, because they have lived there for generations, so marriages and so on are all in neighboring villages or not far away, and over time, basically all villages have relatives, and even if there are no relatives, they can climb up to relatives according to the family generation.

We also sat under the eaves, and my cousin brought us tea, and my mother explained her intentions, saying that this little ghost always wanted to be a Taoist priest.

My cousin joked that it would be difficult to marry a daughter-in-law after becoming a Taoist priest. My cousin gave him a blank look and asked Zhang Blind to do the math for me.

My mother told my birthday to Blind Zhang, who calculated for a while and said that this child was a hard life, and he was a late bloomer. In his early years, he had a bad fate, and he could only start a family after the age of 30.

The mother asked, "Bad life in the early years?" Zhang didn't answer, but asked me to go over and touch my face.

I felt the hands like dead bark groping my face, and then the blind man said, "This child lost his wife at an early age, and his wife was very fateful, and he was adrift until he was thirty years old, and he was bitter after thirty." ”

My mother's face was not very good-looking, and I was more concerned about whether I could be a Taoist priest, so I asked, "Can I be a Taoist priest?" ”

Zhang Blind smiled: "Don't say it, if you are a Taoist, it is quite suitable, the eight characters are very compatible, but depending on your life, the Taoist priest will not be able to do it for a long time, and he will give up being a Taoist." ”

When my mother and I heard this, we were very happy, and I was happy that the previous sentence was quite suitable for being a Taoist priest. Mother is happy about the latter sentence, being a Taoist priest will not last long.

My cousin said beside her: "My grandfather is old now, you can listen to it, don't take it too seriously, in today's words, it's too superstitious." My mother knew that she was blind because of what my wife said, and she smiled and said, "It's okay, if it's true, the things in my life can't be changed." After that, my mother and my cousin Lala had a good time, and when it was almost noon, my mother said that she was still busy at home, so she took me back.

After I went back, my mother told my father what Zhang was blind about, and my parents agreed to let me become a Taoist priest, but my mother was always worried about my future wife and couldn't let go. The father comforted the children and grandchildren, and there was no need to think so far. Later, he mentioned that Aunt Zhao was because of the example of feeding sesame oil to break Zhao Xiaoxue's life and breaking her throat. The mother said nothing more.

And when my father mentioned Zhao Xiaoxue's name, I actually felt uncomfortable for a while. In fact, I want to be a Taoist priest, and I am afraid that Zhao Xiaoxue will come back to me for revenge, and at the same time, I hate the person who made the paper man of the Yellow Temple. If you become a Taoist priest, if you encounter similar things in the future, you should understand this, and you will not hurt others by mistake.

It's just that Zhao Xiaoxue's matter has become a knot in my life.

Later, a few days later, my father went to Taoist Bay, found Taoist Chen, chose an auspicious day, and invited Taoist Chen to come over for apprenticeship.

On the day of apprenticeship, Daoist Chen wore a Taoist robe and came with a post (a red one-foot-wide, two-foot-long half-inch thick wooden board, on which it was written that a certain year, a certain month, and a certain day were accepted as an apprentice, and then framed, which we call a post there, and generally need to be given by the master to the apprentice, or the godfather to the godson, as a certificate, it will generally be hung on the wall of the hall at home).

That's when I met my sister for the first time.

In the past, I always thought that Daoist Chen was an old bachelor and couldn't marry a daughter-in-law, but when I asked my mother, I found out that Daoist Chen had already married a wife and a daughter. When his daughter-in-law gave birth to her daughter, she died in childbirth, and her daughter was saved, so Daoist Chen thought that Daoist Bay Feng Shui was not good, and he was a big man, so he couldn't take care of his daughter, but he was a little reluctant to send him away, after all, his daughter was too young. In the end, when my daughter was about to go to elementary school, I sent my daughter to my grandmother's house dozens of miles away and entrusted it to my daughter's uncle's family to take care of her.

My sister is two years older than me, and now she is in her second year of high school in the county No. 1 middle school, and she is said to be quite good at studying. On that day, Daoist Chen walked in front, carrying the post, and the senior sister was wearing a school uniform, following behind, carrying a basket of eggs. When my family saw it, they all praised my sister for being white and beautiful, and I was fascinated at first sight, because I felt that my sister's eyes were like a pool of autumn water, clear and transparent.

Senior Sister always lowered her head shyly, followed Daoist Chen, and occasionally answered.

At noon, the apprenticeship was carried out, Taoist Chen sat in front of the hall, I saluted tea to him three kowtows, Daoist Chen took the tea and took a sip, and then took two cups of tea, walked outside the hall, I and Taoist Chen together with the outside world three kowtows, and then sprinkled the tea on the ground. Then the uncle lit firecrackers outside, and in the sound of firecrackers, Daoist Chen opened the post, filled in my name and his, and then framed it and hung it on the wall.

At this point, I have succeeded in apprenticeship, and I will have to call Daoist Chen as my master in the future, and I will have to listen to him in the future.

And I finally became a Taoist priest.

In the evening, the senior sister was sent back to my grandmother's house, and I, following the master, came to Taoist Bay.

Daoist Bay said that it was on the mountainside, but in fact, it was about to reach the top of the mountain, and on the road and the back of the mountain, the road went around the mountain in a half circle, and tall cypress pines were planted on both sides. I thought it would be like the story says, a big ancient Taoist temple or something, but at the end of the mountain road, I realized the gap between reality and books. The house is built under the cliff on the top of the mountain, there are only a few tiled houses, and it looks no different from ordinary houses, in front of the tiled house is a large rice field, the edge of the rice field is planted with these osmanthus trees, and the hanging flower tree is a very steep hillside, overgrown with shrubs. There is a path that leads to a few vegetable patches down the slope, and a small river in the distance.

There are several wooden shelves on the rice field, on which are placed a few drying frames (drying baskets, oval bamboo weaving one-zhang square bamboo baskets, different from bamboo baskets, the edge is very low, only one palm high, we used to dry the old millet that we used to spread out in the past, or corn and other crops), there are grains in the baskets, branches and leaves, Chinese medicine and other strange things.

The master had already cleaned up a room and asked me to put my things in, and then took me around each room.

The middle of the tile house is the hall, there is a corridor on both sides, there are several rooms distributed along the edge of the corridor, the hall is about the same size as the ordinary home, but the middle of the hall is enshrined in the statue of the Taoist priest sitting on the plate, the master said that it is the ancestral master, like a wood carving, the outside is coated with copper powder, behind the statue of the ancestor is two portraits, hanging there, like three incense burners in front of the statue. The whole thing is placed on a stone platform that is 2 meters wide and 2 meters long, and 1 meter high.

On the right hand side of the hall, there is a room, the master said that the room where the senior sister was born, and now it is the boudoir of the senior sister, just because the senior sister rarely comes back to live, there is only a wooden bed and a few old wooden furniture and a dresser. Further to the right is a study room, along the wall there are three bookshelves, piled with books, I looked, all of them are old Taoist books, and there are transcripts or something. Beyond that, there is a warehouse, where all kinds of props are placed, ranging from mahogany swords to kill demons, as well as hoes and saws for farm work.

On the left hand side of the hall is the master's room, which contains only a bed, a small desk and a wooden wardrobe. The master's robes and the like are hung on the wall.

The second room on the left hand is the room prepared for me, there is only one bed in it, and the master said that he would go up the mountain to cut down trees and make it himself.

The third room on the left hand is a large practice room, and the master said that when he first came to become a Taoist priest, he had to go there every night to study or practice the exercises.

Then the corridor turned a 90-degree turn, there was no room there, but a kitchen, and a half-circle pit with a radius of one meter was dug next to the stove in the kitchen, half a foot deep, which was where we burned wood to warm up in winter because of the cold.

In every room except the hall, there is a window against the cliff, and the window in the kitchen is facing the opposite direction, that is to have the wind and disperse smoke, and the kitchen has a door in the direction of the road, which is just at a 90-degree angle to the door of the hall.

In the beginning, the days were very simple, every day with the master to dry Chinese medicine or grains, and sometimes I had to go to the field to work.

Until one day at the end of summer, at 8 o'clock, when I was learning to sing with my master in the practice room, someone suddenly knocked on the door and called Taoist Chen. The master opened the door, and it turned out to be two people from Wang Wan, more than ten miles away, two brothers, Wang Jun and Wang Bing.

When the two saw the master open the door, they hurriedly pulled the master to go to Wangwan, saying that something had happened and that someone had fallen into evil.